Beijing International Airport Terminal 3

sushan

August 26, 2008, 02:41 AM

On closer examination (ahem), this site seems to be an archive from an architectural journal in Chinese. You can click on each version of the journal to see different articles. This one has details about several Olympic venues including the Water Cube, the National Indoor Stadium, the Bird's Nest, etc.

urbandweller

August 27, 2008, 05:46 AM

The new terminal 3 is located at Beijing Capital International Airport, (simplified Chinese: 北京首都国际机场; traditional Chinese: 北京首都國際機場; pinyin: Běijīng Shǒudū Guójì Jīchǎng)

 The airport is located 20 km to the northeast of Beijing city center. Although many consider it to lie in Shunyi District, it is, in fact, an exclave of Chaoyang District, Beijing.

The airport is a primary hub of operations for Air China, which flies to around 120 destinations (excluding cargo). It is also a hub for Hainan Airlines and China Southern Airlines.

In 2007, Beijing Capital served 53,736,923 passengers, and became the 9th busiest airport worldwide. It also registered 399,986 aircraft movements,which was the world's 23rd busiest airport and the only Asian airport appearing in the world's thirty busiest airports in terms of traffic movement. It operates around 1100 flights a day, and that figure is expected to rise to 1500-1600 at the Olympics in 2008.

Beijing Airport was opened on March 2, 1958, and was the first in the People's Republic of China. The airport consisted of one small terminal building, which still stands to this day, apparently for the use of VIPs and charter flights. On January 1, 1980, a newer, larger building -- green in colour -- opened, with docks for 10-12 airplanes. The terminal was larger than the 1950s one, but by the mid 1990s it was too small. The terminal was then closed for renovation after the opening of Terminal 2.

In late 1999, to mark the 50th anniversary of the founding of the PRC, the airport was expanded again. This new terminal opened on November 1, and was named Terminal 2. September 20, 2004, saw the opening of a new Terminal 1 for a few airlines, including China Southern Airlines domestic and international flights from Beijing. Other airlines' domestic and international flights still operate in Terminal 2.

Another expansion, terminal 3 (T3) was completed in February 2008, in time for the Beijing Olympics. This colossal expansion includes a third runway and another terminal for Beijing airport, and a rail link to the city center. It is one of the largest airport terminals in the world in terms of land size, and a major landmark in Beijing representing the growing and developing Chinese city.

 Terminal 3

Construction of Terminal 3 started on March 28, 2004 and was opened in two stages.

It was designed by a consortium of NACO (Netherlands Airport Consultants B.V), UK Architect Foster and Partners and ARUP. The budget of the expansion is US$3.5 billion. Far grander in size and scale than the existing terminals, it is the largest airport terminal building complex built in a single phase with 986,000 square meters in total floor area. It features a main passenger terminal (Terminal 3C), two satellite concourses (Terminal 3D and Terminal 3E) and five floors above ground and two underground, with the letters "A and B" omitted to avoid confusions with the existing Terminals 1 and 2. Terminal 3C is dedicated for domestic flights, Terminal 3E for international flights, and Terminal 3D, called the "Olympics Hall", was used for charter flights during the Beijing Olympics, before its use by international flights.

Terminal 3 - if considered an airport on its own - would be the largest airport in the world in land size and one of the world's largest in capacity and land size (approximately 986,000 square meters). It is larger than London Heathrow Airport's 5 terminals combined with another 17% to spare.